Feliz Cumpleaños Mama!

Today is a special day: Friday! Woohoo! Some weeks you really need a Friday. This was such a week.

But that's not all. Today is also.... my Mama's birthday! Yay!

However, I am not celebrating it today. Nope. I refuse. Her birthday has been postponed. At least until TOMORROW since that's when (Lord willing) her plane will land in Peru!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! (Say it with me folks...) YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I can't wait! Although it still doesn't seem real. I'll believe it when I get to hug her!

But in the meantime, in honor of her celebrating many years of life (since I am a nice daughter I will not tell you how many, although I think she should brag because everyone guesses she is younger than she is) and since she will be here soon, I thought I'd share some photos and a bit about how awesome my mom is. I mean, sure, I'm sure your mom is awesome too. But mine is really really awesome. And I'm not just saying that because people tell me I take after her... ;-)

Anyway, she's a little bit crazy (nope, I'm not like her at all) but quite a bit of fun and a very caring person. She's a great godly example and sticks to her convictions even when it's not the easy thing to do. She's also a tremendous servant, the one who takes the jobs that no one else wants, and doesn't go looking for recognition. She's a hard worker and pretty creatively brilliant and artistic. She will figure out a way to do pretty much anything she puts her mind to - although she never did figure out how to stabilize the shelves that she built in the garage. (Seriously, these shelves should be studied as a modern engineering marvel of having every possible support and brace affixed while still maintaining their flexibility. Although, as she pointed out, they are still standing, AND they were strong enough to catch dad the time he fell through the garage ceiling from the attic.)

I also like to think I get my adventuring spirit from her. :-) She taught me to play in the rain and climb things and go exploring. And through (almost) 27 years of my life she's been a ready companion on many an escapade. She usually wasn't the parent complaining about me doing crazy things because they were potentially dangerous, she was only complaining because she wanted to come too. So I'm very excited that she is finally able to come visit Peru and we can have some more adventures on another continent!

Here are some photos over the years:

Golden Pavilion in Japan

Headsmashedinbuffalojump in Canada. 

Backpacking the Chattooga trail- 2005

Easter in Prague

Neuschwanstein castle in Germany

Haiti

Mission trip to Haiti after the earthquake

Preparing for the jungle of Peru? Heheheh. 

Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Betty and Lyndsey in Peru. :-)

Day o' Lyndsey

Some people call it All Hallows' Eve.

To some it is Reformation Day.

In Peru it has become "Dia de la cancion criolla" (Peruvian music celebration).

To most it's simply Halloween.

But in recent years there has been a push to recognize 

the most important holiday that falls on October 31:

Day o' Lyndsey!

Yes, it's a very important day and I hope you were able to celebrate with friends and food and maybe some sort of ridiculous attire. If you didn't eat your weight in candy corn then you probably weren't doing it right.

Anyway, since Day o' Lyndsey happened to fall right after a week of travel, a women's retreat, and right before another week of travel, I was kind of limited as to my planning for the event. Being away from your best friends and family for your birthday can be kind of depressing, so I wanted to make sure I could celebrate with my coworker "family" here in Lima and spend the time enjoying their friendship instead of missing home. I also thought it would be a good excuse to try a bunch of things I had seen on Pinterest and had been wanting to do. So after the retreat I spent the next solid day shopping and cooking and cleaning up the apartment since this was also the first time we were hosting anything in our place.

I had a lovely birthday with lots of sweet wishes from people back home. (And thanks to the Peruvian mail system I am getting to extend my birthday celebration waiting on cards even now. Hehe.)  I also had a lot of fun with everyone who came by. I really enjoyed coming up with the recipes and decorations and was so blessed to have such great friends to celebrate another year with.

Here are pics of the party and links to recipes that I based mine on:

Classy, right?

Guacamole pumpkin

Owl cupcakes. 

Mini caramel apple bites.

I got tired of trying to separate Peruvian oreos, which do not separate easily, for owl eyes. So I decided to crumble them up and make dirt and worm cakes too.

Cheesecake filled strawberries, dipped in chocolate. 

Spicy cheesy spinach dip with a bell pepper octopus. He was cuter when he had his tentacles arranged and no dip on his face, but I didn't get a pic before people started eating. Dip was pretty tasty!

Spread.

Ellen made me a birthday cake! And put 2 and 6 candles on it. :-)

Fun times with friends.

Excited about cake!

With Evelyn, who loves a good party. 

My friends aren't weird at all. Suuure. 

Norah helped me celebrate too!

Since I didn't have time to carve a real jack-o-latern, I just stuck a candle in the sick one.  Haha.

 Happy Day o' Lyndsey!
And many thanks to all who helped me celebrate and made my birthday so very special.
Here's to another year of blessings.